Dmitry Kulikov

The New York Islanders played host to the Florida Panthers this afternoon, looking to redeem themselves after a very embarrassing 6-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils yesterday afternoon. To the Isles' dismay, that would not be the case as they squandered a two-goal lead in the third period to lose to the Panthers by a score of 5-3.

The Hawks kicked off the first leg of their Mother/Son road trip with a shootout win Tuesday night in Florida against the Panthers. Corey Crawford stopped both Florida attempts in the shootout and Patrick Sharp netted the game winner for the visitors.

The Hawks continued to have trouble putting together a full 60 minutes of hockey, and gave up two unanswered goals to Florida in the third to tie a game that was 2-0 heading into the last period.

The shortened season has certainly had an effect around the league this year.

Players have been getting hurt and the fatigue factor has been settling in despite not even being half way through the season. The biggest factor in the fatigue has been all of the back-to-back games being played.

They've been especially hard on the Flyers, who fell to 2-4-0 in those games after getting drubbed 5-2 at the hands of the Panthers on Thursday.

A part of the lackadaisical performance could be attributed to the emotionally-charged 6-5 win in Pittsburgh the previous night. The trip itself between the Steel City and Philadelphia wasn't exhausting.